chrome vs firefox on ubuntu

at first i wanted to install chrome only to prove how much i did not want to use google’s browser. however, since the day i installed chrome, i used it and google’s chrome is much better than i expected. but as i do love my old firefox i still didn’t have the guts to set chrome as my default browser…yet. i also got used to the blueish look of chrome inside the brownish ubuntu theme and the fact that it looks like an alien on my ubuntu desktop is not disturbing me anymore.

if you want to you can switch from chrome’s default theme to the gtk+ theme.(tools->options->use gtk+ theme) an advantage of chrome is having the tab on the very top of the window, is simply the best place to put them. and after using chrome only for a few hours, i got used to it so quickly that i keep on searching the tabs when i use firefox. i saw that opera is doing it the same way as chrome, tabs on top, which means that the address bar is within a tab. this means that there is not a universal address bar anymore, which is for me quite logical. after heavy usage i noticed that using chrome is a lot of fun and it feels like it is a lot faster than firefox on ubuntu karmic. so i tried to find out more if that’s true

as i am often working on battery, i try to close the apps as soon as i don’t need them, which also means i need to re-open applications a lot. startup time is therefore important, startup time comparison for chrome and firefox (from launching till ready for use):

1. chrome : 1.1 seconds; 2. firefox : 4.4 seconds

this could be related to add-ons, i am using firebug and delicious bookmarks in firefox and delicious bookmarks in chrome. but definitely chrome is faster on startup.

then i tried to find out about how much memory or processor time both applications require. however finding the memory usage of an application is not that simple, then how do you define memory usage? virtual memory, shared memory or resident memory? so i decided to simply use system monitor of ubuntu for a quick. what i quickly realized is that chrome uses for each tab a new process (and 3 other default processes). i opened the same pages(simple text sites and some with heavy flash) in chrome and firefox in 5 tabs and the results were

memory usage after 1 hour usage (30 min each):

1.firefox : 142mb; 2.chrome : 173mb (sum of all 8 processes)

process time when pages were open and me not using the browsers:

1. chrome : 0%; 2. firefox: 30%!!!

i guess the processor time is due to the flash inside some pages, but still i could not get an explanation for this huge difference for both browsers. this makes firefox no good choice for visiting flash sites while short on battery.

the third and maybe most important point for browsers is to render pages fast (and correctly). for the speed there is a nice site allowing to making some rendering speed tests for your browser (peacekeeper) i recommend that you go and check your browser yourself and either confirm or reject my results. my results from peacekeeper were

1. chrome : 1591 points; 2.firefox 3.5.6 : 632 points; 3. firefox 3.5.5 : 599 points

on the acid3 test chrome scores a full 100/100 points, where firefox again lacks behind with 93 points. both browsers passed the browser security test. on google v8 benchmarks, i can’t believe the results 2273 – 161 for chrome. i start to think that something is wrong?

what i was missing for chrome and a major barrier for making it my default browser was the lack (or me not knowing) of a delicious bookmark plugin. til today i found the delicious bookmark plugin for chrome.(chromium delicious plugin) further there is an adblock plugin for chrome as well (here), but i know that some of you have to stay with firefox as there is no ‘no-script’ plugin for chrome.(or none that i know of)

i have to admit that chrome is an excellent new browser for linux, and that i am impressed. what makes me wonder, how is this possible? firefox almost exists in version 6, and chrome is the first official release on linux?

conclusion i will use chrome for a while, still trying to find that something is wrong with it, however i also start believing that firefox is out on linux. it may still be a nice product, but come on…after so many attempts to get a nice browser for linux, google shows that one can succeed in first attempt. congratulations to the team of chrome. best browser award? no, since i don’t know much about opera, epiphany, and co. but chrome surely makes it to the top 3!

at first i wanted to install chrome only to prove how much i did not want to use google’s browser. however, since the day i installed chrome, i used it...